Defiant & Relentless… That Sounds About Right

It’s just two days until the ZOOMA Half Marathon, and there are 10 of us participating in the festivities this weekend. We call our team “Relentless” — and we even have our own Relentless merch!

It’s been six months since I got new running shoes, so last week, I replaced them. Saturday will be the long-distance debut of my new Brooks Defyance 2 sneaks.

It took me a while to warm up to the blue-silver-white color scheme of the Brooks Defyance running shoes I got last September, but as Dave says, “You don’t choose the shoes; the shoes choose you.” (Or, more accurately, the friendly, helpful people at RunTex choose my shoes, and I trust them.)

When I laced them up, my Brooks Defyance were as comfortable as bare feet. I love them madly, and it was time for a new pair.

Hello, Brooks Defyance 2 (The Reckoning)! And to you, my dear Brooks Defyance (the originals), I say thank you for all your hard work!

Here are all the things I did in my old Brooks…

• 52 days of the 100 Burpee Challenge
• Randal’s Gynmnastics Workshop
• Lost in the Lost Pines 5-mile trail run
• San Antonio Mission 10k
• Parkour adventures with Randal
• Fight Gone Bad
• New tabata squats PR: 22 consistently for four rounds
• Recovered from Frankenneck
• Reached my Weight Watchers goal weight!
• I AM CROSSFIT Challenge (and lost another 3.1% body fat)
• 3M and Austin Half Marathons
• 20″ box jump
• Fight Gone Bad at the elite weight (score: 209)
• New 3-mile PR of 27:44

My new Brooks Defyance 2s and I will be training together for the next six months, and I’ve got some good stuff planned for us: Saturday’s ZOOMA Half Marathon, the Spartan 300 Challenge, pullups on the new bar in my backyard… and whatever other surprises pop up. Six months is plenty of time for adventures!

[Click here to read my ode to my other running shoes I have loved.]